Mass. birth facilities ban infant formula gift bags

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The last few Massachusetts maternity hospitals that were still offering free infant formula gift bags to new mothers have decided to ban the practice, welcome news for advocates of breast-feeding. All 49 birth facilities in the state have voluntarily eliminated the giveaways by the beginning of July, making Massachusetts the second state to do so. Rhode Island hospitals ended the practice last November.

“We applaud the effort of all of the hospitals to make this explicit statement of their support of breast-feeding here in the Commonwealth,” said Dr. Lauren Smith, medical director of the state Department of Public Health.

In 2005, Massachusetts tried to end the free formula practice with a statewide ban instituted by the Public Health Council, which issues health regulations. But that decision was overturned several months later when Governor Mitt Romney replaced council members who were in favor of the ban.

More than a dozen studies have shown that breast-feeding mothers who received free ­formula samples after they left the hospital were less likely to be breast-feeding by the time their infant was 1 month old. “Using formula without a medical reason is one of the biggest predictors of breast-feeding failure,” said Dr. Melissa ­Bartick, chairwoman of the Massachusetts Breastfeeding Coalition.

But infant formula makers responded that formula giveaways have been inappropriately blamed for women opting out of nursing because it is, for example, too difficult to maintain when they head back to work.

“Some critics of formula samples claim research has consistently shown that samples in discharge kits negatively affect duration of breastfeeding,” the International Formula Council, an industry group, said. “In fact, the research ­results have not been consistent.”

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that mothers exclusively breast-feed for the first six months to provide babies with protection against respiratory illnesses, ear infections, gastrointestinal diseases, and allergies. Breast-fed babies also have a lower risk of sudden infant death syndrome and a reduced likelihood of becoming obese teenagers and adults.

Whether free formula swayed some mothers to stop nursing, free brand-name formula samples may have ultimately led to increased expenses for parents, to the tune of $700 a year, for those who stuck with the initial pricier brands, such as Enfamil and Similac, instead of switching to a cheaper generic formula, according to an analysis by the Massachusetts Breastfeeding Coalition.

The move to voluntarily end formula giveaways started gaining momentum among maternity hospitals soon after the state reversed its ban. In 2005, only seven hospitals had banned the gift bags, but by 2010 the number had risen to 27. At the beginning of this year, only 12 hospitals were still giving formula away.

The trend away from giveaways may have had something to do with a state breast-feeding advocacy group’s posting of a list of birth centers that had banned the gift bags, as well as a list of those that were still offer­ing formula freebies. At the annual meeting of the group MotherBaby Summit, Dr. Bobbi Philipp, a Boston Medical Center pediatrician involved with the group, said, “Hospital administrators told us they wanted to get off the second list.”

UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester decided to stop handing out formula bags last fall because of pressure within the institution to no longer have corporate marketing on any hospital materials, said Dr. Ellen Delpapa, medical ­director of the hospital’s labor and delivery unit, as well as to encourage breast-feeding.

“We now give women a free canvas bag with our hospital ­logo, but it doesn’t have anything in it,” said Delpapa. “So far, we’ve had no complaints; no one has missed the formula.”

Whether the voluntary bans will have a significant impact on long-term breast-feeding rates remains to be seen. Many women may still turn to formula during those first sleep-deprived weeks after they leave the hospital if they are having trouble nursing, Philipp said.

Boston Medical Center is one of only four hospitals in the state that has received a baby-friendly designation by ­UNICEF and the World Health Organization, which means it maximizes chances of successful breast-feeding by having ­babies room with their mothers, allowing no formula supplementation unless medically necessary, and having lactation consultants on hand to instruct new mothers.

Baby-friendly hospitals also cannot accept free formula from manufacturers, which most hospitals still do, even if they do not give away samples in gift bags. The Cambridge Birth Center, Tobey Hospital in Wareham, and Melrose-Wakefield Hospital all became baby-friendly hospitals within the past two years.

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